Lessons by Ian McEwan (Cape, £20)
Ian McEwan could be forgiven for coasting a bit. Now 74, he soared clear years ago of such former competitors as Martin Amis and Salman Rushdie to become established as Britain’s leading literary novelist. his longest novel so far, but it’s also one of his most ambitious: a book that sets out to explore the strange mixture of personal experiences and historical forces that shape a life.
